>The author has lived there for 20 years, married there, has kids who go to local schools, yet calls himself an expat, and everyone here seems to accept that as an obvious truth.
If they refer to themselves as an expat, why are you questioning this? Do you demand proof when someone refers to themselves as male or female too?
I know people living in the US who have been there for 20 years and call themselves expats too. They have no intention of retiring in the US: they plan to move back to their home country at that point in their lives.
>Meanwhile a million+ people coming to the USA on temporary work visas fully intending to go back to their home country (or illegally with no path to citizenship) are obviously immigrants.
Is that what they call themselves? I would normally call them expats, unless they say otherwise.
>At some point people have to come to terms that this isn't about some technical definition of "immigrant" vs "expat" but a deeper prejudice.
At some point, people like you need to stop trying to make everything about racism.
> >At some point people have to come to terms that this isn't about some technical definition of "immigrant" vs "expat" but a deeper prejudice.
> At some point, people like you need to stop trying to make everything about racism.
But it is. (Kinda.) If you don't look East-Asian in China, the predominant assumption is that you're an "expat". And statistically this is almost always true -- Chinese nationality is extremely hard to obtain if you're not born with it, and probably 99% of Chinese nationals look East Asian and has East Asian ethnicity.
Sure, because China basically allows no immigration, but that's not what the OP was referring to, he's complaining about privileged white people and their use of the terms.
If they refer to themselves as an expat, why are you questioning this? Do you demand proof when someone refers to themselves as male or female too?
I know people living in the US who have been there for 20 years and call themselves expats too. They have no intention of retiring in the US: they plan to move back to their home country at that point in their lives.
>Meanwhile a million+ people coming to the USA on temporary work visas fully intending to go back to their home country (or illegally with no path to citizenship) are obviously immigrants.
Is that what they call themselves? I would normally call them expats, unless they say otherwise.
>At some point people have to come to terms that this isn't about some technical definition of "immigrant" vs "expat" but a deeper prejudice.
At some point, people like you need to stop trying to make everything about racism.